Pontiac to be "Killed Off"!

[tekenaar]

. . . will Pontiac actually build the Solstice GXP Coupe then?! . . . it appears somewhat contraindicative from all things about/from them lately, wouldn't you say! Haven't really heard from them that they're NOT . . . but haven't heard that they ARE either!!!

[timemachine]

. . . will Pontiac actually build the Solstice GXP Coupe then?! . . . it appears somewhat contraindicative from all things about/from them lately, wouldn't you say! Haven't really heard from them that they're NOT . . . but haven't heard that they ARE either!!!

On the surface you'd think it's doubtful. Then again, they have all the dies and parts, maybe they would sell them or license them to a private firm to make. GM still has to support existing Soltices for 10 years if I am not mistaken. At least owners will have a ton of NOS parts.

Good article in New York Times: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009...-too-late/?hpw

It's hard for me to defend GM. That "Transformers" movie has been out for two years and GM is only now bringing the "new" Camaro that starred in the movie to market with a design that was on the boards going back many years and a look that's sharp but already falling out of date.

[opeljohn]

The wife has driven a Grand Am since 1991. The two of them have all in all been pretty good cars. We have been thinking of getting a G8 but price is a bit steep. What all this means is I like Pontiac and was hoping the talk about making it a performance marque for GM would in fact be the way they went. I can not say I am shocked that it is being shut down. At a point in time Olds, Pontiac, Buick, Chevy all became the same car with minor cosmetic changes. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out it would be cheaper to make them all the same way. I happen to like the Pontiac take on design but our Grand Am and an Olds Alero are kissing cousins. Olds first, now poncho. I am old enough to remember when they looked different from each other. If Saturn was going to be Opel, then they should have just imported them and sold them as such. A low priced German car would have likely been quite popular with the import crowd. I hope Gm can make it, but I am not sold on the too big to fail concept. I would like to see the GXP Coupe be done with the Sky body style, not too big on the Solstice front or rear. It would be a much more useful car with a bit of storage.

[Ooooner]

This article sums it up best... It's politics at its best...

Pontiac Is Dead; Is The Corvette Next? - AOL Autos

[newman27]

I've been in mourning for two days now - can't shake the funk... My hope is that when the 10 years or so have passed, someone steps up for the Solstice and G8 the way Opel GT Source, USA Opel, and others have for our Opels. Otherwise, the car will eventually be quite difficult to keep on the road.

This article sums it up best... It's politics at its best...
Pontiac Is Dead; Is The Corvette Next? - AOL Autos

Look at the top 20 cars list in this article. There isn't one car on that list I would get excited about and want to drive. How can a performance / excitement division like Pontiac survive when an appliance vehicle like the Camry (I hear it makes great toast) is the best selling car?!?

[rrossjr]

I haven't owned a Pontiac for many years (since a rusty little Fiero that I got from my "friend" back in the late 80's) They are certainly responsible for some iconic cars in the past-most notably (in my opinion) the GTO. Sad to see ANOTHER American landmark vanish overnight... Farewell, Pontiac | Philly | 04/27/2009
Ron in Indy

[blackonblack89]

Look at the top 20 cars list in this article. There isn't one car on that list I would get excited about and want to drive. How can a performance / excitement division like Pontiac survive when an appliance vehicle like the Camry (I hear it makes great toast) is the best selling car?!?

ummm there are 5 cars I would take. 1. fusion (hybrid/sport) 2 civic si 3. F-150 (bad-ass truck...can u say raptor) 4. and mix up between the nissan and malibu. cough-cough SS. Did u see the 1434 mile to the TANK ford fusion hybrid. (81MPG's!!!! 100% stock). Ford really waking up, IMO, big time. Taurus SHO!!!! (im a SHO guy) fusion line up, f-150, stang. FINALLY getting an HP grade soon.

Of course I mentiond the top models / performance models. The nice/cool one brings the crowds ($$$$) in but the base models sell. I am ford person but love all cars . GM messed up and has to change things. pontiac was on the bottom of the list. IMO hummer should've been 1st and ATLEAST 1 year ago. I think it suxes it had to close the real performacne lines....V line and IIRC SS line. cobalt SS=best 26-28k u can spend!!!!!

Pontiac meh w/e IMO it was a chevy car with different sheetmetal. It is/was not a perormanc division. No way. It had a few but was no performance divison. Thats why this happened to much copying with very few actual changes. sans G8 GXP It too bad sswweeeet car!!!!

[baz]

looks like Chrysler is going this week

Chrysler to file for bankruptcy* - Yahoo! News UK

[Opel Fan]

Sorry -- here come my opinions...

I am very sad... I LOVE Pontiacs. I think the '69 Grand Prix was a landmark muscle/luxury car, and they have had so many other desirable performance cars before and after, leading up to what I assume was a great sports car -- the Solstice.

But when you sell a glorified Citation/Phoenix as a Pontiac (I'm referring now to ninety percent of the fwd cars they have sold since), and that Sunbird/Grand Am/G6 etc. is a fragile piece of crap, then what can you expect? And what was WITH those Pontiac dealers having the gall to GOUGE prospective buyers of Solstices, while they were virtually helping themselves go out of business...!!!?????

EVERY person I have worked with or been friends with who bought a Pontiac or Buick in the past eighteen years (about five people -- all the rest are buying foreign cars...) had a major engine component failure in the first 10,000 miles --- bad camshafts and bad oil pumps mostly, as I remember it. That's not a great record, especially if you've ever experienced a Toyota....

...and yet I still --- more than ever --- want to pick up a well-kept rare 4th-gen Firebird Formula convertible, even though I KNOW they are junky.... bad distributors, water-pumps, cooling systems, transmissions, suspensions, etc.

That's us Americans --- romantic to the end...!

[Gumby]

looks like Chrysler is going this week

Chrysler to file for bankruptcy* - Yahoo! News UK

Bankruptcy does not mean the company is going away. Chapter 11 is meant to restructure the business, usually by shedding unwanted debt or obligation. If they were filing for Chapter 7, total liquidation of the business, then they'd be closing down. In all honesty bankruptcy is probably one of the best things Chrysler can do right now if they want to survive.

Sorry -- here come my opinions...

I am very sad... I LOVE Pontiacs. I think the '69 Grand Prix was a landmark muscle/luxury car, and they have had so many other desirable performance cars before and after, leading up to what I assume was a great sports car -- the Solstice.

But when you sell a glorified Citation/Phoenix as a Pontiac (I'm referring now to ninety percent of the fwd cars they have sold since), and that Sunbird/Grand Am/G6 etc. is a fragile piece of crap, then what can you expect? And what was WITH those Pontiac dealers having the gall to GOUGE prospective buyers of Solstices, while they were virtually helping themselves go out of business...!!!?????

EVERY person I have worked with or been friends with who bought a Pontiac or Buick in the past eighteen years (about five people -- all the rest are buying foreign cars...) had a major engine component failure in the first 10,000 miles --- bad camshafts and bad oil pumps mostly, as I remember it. That's not a great record, especially if you've ever experienced a Toyota....

...and yet I still --- more than ever --- want to pick up a well-kept rare 4th-gen Firebird Formula convertible, even though I KNOW they are junky.... bad distributors, water-pumps, cooling systems, transmissions, suspensions, etc.

That's us Americans --- romantic to the end...!

This isn't a matter of romantics. We used to build some of the best/most durable machinery and equipment in the world... what do we build now? garbage. If I am going to spend my hard earned dollars I am going to get the best thing I can possibly afford... "that best" has never been an American made car in my lifetime. The auto industry got fat and lazy, produced cheaper and cheaper products. World production capacity greatly outnumbers the number of cars that can be sold each year. This is called natural selection, the market needs to be thinned and I have no qualms to see if Pontiac, Saturn, or any other car make go away. In the end someone else in the end will step up to fill the holes they will leave.

[Ooooner]

had a major engine component failure in the first 10,000 miles --- bad camshafts and bad oil pumps mostly, as I remember it.

I bought a brand new 97 Firebird and before the warranty ran out, I had to replace the transmission! The strange thing about it was, the dealer tried to tell me it was the exhaust system and not the transmission! The warranty was within 200 miles of running out so I guess he was hoping I would just drive off and wait until it rolled over 36,000 miles. Then I would have been stuck with buying a new transmission out of my own pocket. I was born at night, but not last night!

[opel kid]

first off wow it's been a while since i've posted a comment! anyhow it brings chills to me when i'm seeing car manufacturing companies dieing and going under. this is probably a stupid question but would you think Gm would sell pontiac to a private buyer then rather letting it go under for good?
ps i own a 1978 firebird.

[First opel 1981]

first off wow it's been a while science i've posted a comment! anyhow it brings chills to me when i'm seeing car manufacturing companies dieing and going under. this is probably a stupid question but would you think Gm would sell pontiac to a private buyer then rather letting it go under for good?
ps i own a 1978 firebird.

Sell it, get money. Dump it for good and get no money.

That was an easy question.

[opelbits]

I'm no great fan of GM (US, that is) or Pontiac, but I have been defending GM in conversations about how the car companies have 'failed'. Compared to 20 years ago, GM/Ford/Chrysler have made huge improvements in quality and engineering. All this talk about how they don't build cars we need is just plain crap. They are in the business of building what we want, not what we need.
As someone pointed out, look at all the Grand Ams running around. I see far more of them than I do Buicks. But as was also pointed out, there are more old people available to buy old people cars than there are young people to buy that Pontiac excitement. It's a good point...except that this nice little financial meltdown (the real reason we are even talking about auto industry bailouts and bankrupties), how many of those baby boomers have lost a good chunk of their retirement funds are going to be looking at buying any car, much less a Buick?
In this country, Buick is almost defunct. Keep building them in China if they sell that many there, but Pontiac should stay. So should Saturn.
Those too companies represent GM's best chances at fighting the imports.
And GM selling Opel? Virtually everything GM has that is any good at competing with the Japanese originates at Opel, whether it is whole cars or just the engineering.

I guess now I can stop defending the 'turnaround' GM had made...

As for Chrysler, aside from their trucks and Jeep, everything new from the time of the K-car, has been based on foreign (European) engineering. The whole cab-forward thing in 93-94 was based on the Renault platform and the current stuff is M-B based, so FIAT would be no real change.

[GTJIM]

Years ago there was a 1967/8 Pontiac Firebird down the street - an 'entry level' six-cylinder model with the 4bbl. 215hp OHC motor; painted yellow.

Has to be one of the few cars I would consider swapping my GT for .......

[manta73wi]

I'm sad to see Pontiac discontinued. My brother's first two cars were '72 LeMans GT's, which was a great looking car. We had a '89 Pontiac 6000LE wagon with the 2.8 V6. It was a great 3 seat family car with decent performance and milage in the low to upper 20's...really decent for a car that size. We sold it with 160,000 miles when we wanted the space of a van. My buddy and has family have had a string of Pontiacs which they've really liked as well. We had a few Buicks which treated us well. We've actually had great experiences with all the Big 3. Our Chevy Astro AWD van lasted up to 112K until my daughter totalled it in an ice storm. We put 210,000 on a '89 Dodge Grand Caravan before selling that, and we currently have 159,000 on a '93 Ford Escort and 82,000 on our '03 Chrysler Town & County Limited. The Chrysler really is a great vehicle...quiet, comfortable even on long trips, great power, nice features, and good milage for the room it has. However, it doesn't handle like the Mantas, so when the weather is dry and I don't need the space of the van, I'm in a Manta!
-Jeff W.

[GoinManta]

Bought a 2004 GTO.. loved it so much I replaced it with a 2006 GTO.

Last April I was at Carlilse Spring and bought a basket case of a 1966 Lemans/GTO clone convertible.. and just finished it up.

The list of classic Pontiacs is long.. even the Fiero was a good car (Ok admittedly the last year mainly).. They had style..

Current lineup isnt bad either..

The current G8 is an AWESOME car.. and I am PISSED the G8 ST was cancelled..

Pontiac G8 ST: officially cancelled

The Solstice, G6 and Vibe are good cars as well...

But they AXE Pontiac and save BUICK ???? Name a Buick you would want to buy ?? EVER !! (Other than the Buick Grand National)

Fritz Henderson is a idiot

He saves Buick to sell wealthy Chinese, and we will get to buy Chery

http://www.cheryinternational.com/

YEA....

[First opel 1981]

Name a Buick you would want to buy ?? EVER !! (Other than the Buick Grand National)

I got about 30 more years before I am a potential Buick owner (as if I would ever buy GM)

[tomking]

Bought a 2004 GTO.. loved it so much I replaced it with a 2006 GTO.

Last April I was at Carlilse Spring and bought a basket case of a 1966 Lemans/GTO clone convertible.. and just finished it up.

The list of classic Pontiacs is long.. even the Fiero was a good car (Ok admittedly the last year mainly).. They had style..

Current lineup isnt bad either..

The current G8 is an AWESOME car.. and I am PISSED the G8 ST was cancelled..

Pontiac G8 ST: officially cancelled

The Solstice, G6 and Vibe are good cars as well...

But they AXE Pontiac and save BUICK ???? Name a Buick you would want to buy ?? EVER !! (Other than the Buick Grand National)

Fritz Henderson is a idiot

He saves Buick to sell wealthy Chinese, and we will get to buy Chery

Chery International

YEA....

CHARLES! Two posts in one day after such a long absence. Everyone was beginning to worry that you had dropped off the face of the earth. Welcome back.

[GoinManta]

Been preoccupied with my 66 GTO

That and my business.. havent had time to be bored...

My 66 GTO is done, and weather is bad and thus.. here I am

Now I would love to get another project.. but the GTO busted me good.. it came with virtually no parts and needed everything. eBay fees have been killing all sense of profit for my business. So.. closest thing to a project I have right now is trying to get the Kadett motor running again. I am hoping its a lose torque convertor bolt otherwise it needs a new motor.

Who knows.. maybe someone will call wanting to get rid of an Opel soon and I will have something to play with. I do have a 14 year old and its about that time to start on his project..